Gerry Adams criticised for ‘chilling’ comments after libel win against BBC

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Gerry Adams criticised for ‘chilling’ comments after libel win against BBC

Gerry Adams has been criticised for “chilling” comments made following his legal victory against the BBC.

The corporation was ordered to

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by the High Court in Dublin after a jury ruled that it had libelled him.

A 2016 episode of the BBC’s Spotlight programme, and an accompanying online story, alleged that Adams sanctioned the

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, a Sinn Fein official who was unmasked as a British spy.

The jury also found the BBC’s actions were not in good faith and it had not acted in a fair and reasonable way.

Adams’s legal team said the verdict was “full vindication” for their client, while the BBC warned that the implications were “profound”.

Seamus Dooley, the Irish secretary of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), said it would make journalists “pause for reflection”.

He told RTE’s This Week programme: “The first thing we should say is Gerry Adams was

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.

“But it does have profound implications for the practice of journalism and I think it has implications both in terms of defamation law but also for me in terms of journalism in Northern Ireland and the relationship between Sinn Fein and journalists in Northern Ireland.”

‘Unfair and unreasonable’ remarks

Speaking outside court on Friday, Adams said the case was “about putting manners on the British Broadcasting Corporation”.

He added that the BBC “upholds the ethos of the British state in Ireland, and in my view, it’s out of sync in many, many fronts with the Good Friday Agreement.”

Mr Dooley said: “I found that a chilling comment actually. He referred to putting manners on the BBC, to me that means putting them back in their box.

“The reality is that Spotlight has, for over 40 years, done some of the most amazing investigative journalism.

“Margaret Thatcher tried to ban Spotlight because of their coverage of [the] Gibraltar Three, they exposed Kincora at the heart of the British establishment, recently they did work on ‘

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’, and in fact the Sinn Fein mayor of Derry led the campaign to save BBC Radio Foyle news service.

“I found the attitude quite chilling but also unfair and unreasonable in the circumstances.”

BBC director Adam Smyth (centre) and journalist Jennifer O’Leary (right) speak to the media following the verdict – Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

Mr Dooley said Adams was a figure of “huge significance” to journalists, historians and academics, and had “influenced the shape of history of Northern Ireland”.

He added: “On that basis, any journalist has a right, any academic, to question and probe.”

Mr Dooley said the case underpinned the need for a review of defamation laws in Ireland. He added: “First of all we need to look at the defence of honest opinion and how you square that circle in the context of journalists’ right to protect sources, it is a real difficulty.

“For many years the NUJ was in favour of retaining juries. I have now reached the conclusion in defamation cases that juries are not appropriate. One of the reasons is we will never know why the jury reached this decision.

“If, as in Northern Ireland, had Adams taken his case in Northern Ireland, the case is heard before judges, you have the benefit of a written judgment, you have the benefit of a detailed explanation of the reason why a verdict is given. That provides an insight and a guide. Here, we don’t know.”

Mr Dooley also pointed out that proceedings in the case had been running since 2016.

Mr Donaldson was

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, months after admitting his role as a police and MI5 agent over 20 years.

In the Spotlight programme, broadcast in September 2016, an anonymous source, given the pseudonym Martin, claimed the shooting was sanctioned by the political and military leadership of the IRA and that Adams gave “the final say”.

In 2009, the dissident republican group the Real IRA claimed responsibility for the killing and a Garda investigation into the matter remains ongoing.

Adams had described the allegation as a “grievous smear”.

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